Skip to main content

The Internet: being like Marmite since... *insert date here*

I think the internet is something you either love or hate. You either 'get' it or you don't.

For me, the internet has been a platform to interact with similar people, make new friends, voice my opinions and just have a jolly good time. Sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Blogspot and Goodreads have enabled me to interact with people that I otherwise wouldn't interact with. Through Youtube I have met Lucy, Gabriella, Amber, Joe, Jess, Heike, Jake and plenty other people through them. Through Twitter I've met all sorts of new people and been able to have conversations I never would usually have with the people at school, I've been mentioned in the acknowledgments of one of my favourite author's books, I've actually been able to meet her and I'm a character in one of her books too! These platforms have allowed me to grow as a person and just to have a really good time! Other sites such as Goodreads have allowed me to explore reading and write reviews on a regular basis. Whoever thought it up was a genius!

The mass of communities I'm involved in are huge. I'm a Nerdfighter and through that I've been able to have great conversations with people, especially Jess (found here on YouTube - she deserves more subscribers!). With whom I've had countless awesome conversations over the Youtube inbox.

Thanks to Youtube I'm a more confident and self-assured person, I feel more okay with being who I am and that's down to the people I talk to and the experiences I share with them. When I went to a gathering back in April, I found myself feeling completely at ease with a group of people I'd only ever talked to over the internet. It excites and baffles me at the same time.

When I say you can either love it or hate it I mean this: if you find the right sites and the right people, the internet can be a platform that you can use to surround yourself in these incredible communities with these wonderful people. If you don't 'get' that, if you can't find the people that are right for you then you don't get what's great about the internet and you can hate it and not understand why these people get giddy about placing "in your pants" after a book title!

Keep smiling users of the Internet and DFTBA! <3

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Teens don't read"

Earlier today Maureen Johnson pointed out that the view of "teens don't read" in the UK is deeply entrenched (which is a word that I now love  and had never heard before). As a teenager in the UK, the stigma around reading seems to be - to me - it's "uncool", it's "geeky", there "aren't any good books out there". I think the fact that a lot of teenagers in British schools are exposed to older literature or, perhaps, not that popular literature in lessons and forced into over-analysing and spending countless hours on 'what the author meant'. A point that was raised in this twitter discussion was that people didn't want to be seen reading, or didn't want to be seen reading certain books. It's made me realise that I never   ever ever  see people reading in the older years in my school ( ever ). Perhaps the odd year 7 (12 year old) or year 8 (13 year old) will read, but - from experience - they will probably be ...
4 comments
Read more

Expectations

I haven't even attempted to write this blog post until now because I haven't really fully contemplated the goings on of this past week. To say they have been crazy, mad, bonkers... dumbfounding even would be a slight understatement. After spending the last three days recuperating and avidly watching season 2 of Gilmore Girls I have finally realised that I, Claire Margerison, have just left school. I have four exams and a results and that's it. Kaput. Done. Bam. Gone. Poof. Weird. My last day and leavers' ball (prom, whatever you may call it) were sublime - and I genuinely mean that. Other than the nearly fainting and having to leave and getting laughed at in the leavers' assembly, it was utterly perfect. I spent a majority of my prom catching up with teachers and just talking to them about the future, about the past, about my ex-boyfriend in particular (hah, sorry Michael - suffice to say I think you enjoyed the conversations too!). It was amusing and fun and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Books and other musings!

I love books. If you know me, you probably know that I love books, because I am now on a leaflet that is advertising Young Volunteering over however a larger area. It's rather disconcerting (and, to be quite frank, the picture could be nicer too!) that people can see my face whenever they want to... not that they can't do that anyway, what with making the YouTube videos and what have you thingy ma bob. This book to your *works out left and right in head* right (? I have no idea... my brain is sleepy) is the book that John Green recently recommended and I have also recently purchased because of this recommendation. I learnt last time ( Anna-and-the-French-Kiss- last-time) that John Green is pretty damn good at book recommendations! I run a reading group with some of the people I volunteer with at my library and we're just  getting started. We've had three people turn up so far ( I know. ) but we're working on it! I'm currently annoyed because I wrote a lovely...
Post a Comment
Read more